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Brownlow Medallist

There's absolutely no evidence of 'bluff' or 'gambling' except in the heads of some posters here. None whatsoever.

Dodoro would lose his job, there are innumerable other people who would know what was supposed to happen, and he would lose his job if he had lost access to a genuine target playing such silly bugger games with a relatively high pick. It's nonsensical to believe this is what happened. I understand stand some people being disappointed in losing Moz, but such fanciful explanations as to why Essendon picked him are nothing more than deluded defence-mechanisms to make ourselves feel better.

Dodoro may be a dick, but there would be a bunch of angry recruiters in his team who would be outraged if all their year-long reconassaince, scouting and recruiting work was wasted in one fell swoop, for the tiny, tiny bonus of making another (hated) team pay a little bit more for someone. Heads would roll.

We are either over-estimating Essendon's desire to **** over Hawthorn, underestimating their own recruiting needs and competence, or both.

It's just not plausible. I know Essendon's drug scandal has pushed the line 'bad governance', as if incompetence is the major player in their football decisions, but it isn't. They did the drugs scandal in full full knowledge and calculation for the sole reason of self-benefit, and this is exactly the same.

For whatever reason, Essendon rated Mosquito as the best player available at that pick. We didn't, nor did we see him as worth paying a 20% discount on that price. End of story.

EDIT: i reckon I'm about one post away from being threadbanned by Abasi MODERATOR...

Todd Garner is eligible this year. Is a jet of a player, in the mould of Bradley Hill. Will get full exposure at TAC cup this year, played mostly school footy last year. Eastern Ranges should field a decent side this season. Definitely one to watch though

Brownlow Medallist

Dodoro may be a dick, but there would be a bunch of angry recruiters in his team who would be outraged if all their year-long reconassaince, scouting and recruiting work was wasted in one fell swoop, for the tiny, tiny bonus of making another (hated) team pay a little bit more for someone. Heads would roll.

We are either over-estimating Essendon's desire to **** over Hawthorn, underestimating their own recruiting needs and competence, or both.

It's just not plausible. I know Essendon's drug scandal has pushed the line 'bad governance', as if incompetence is the major player in their football decisions, but it isn't. They did the drugs scandal in full full knowledge and calculation for the sole reason of self-benefit, and this is exactly the same.

For whatever reason, Essendon rated Mosquito as the best player available at that pick. We didn't, nor did we see him as worth paying a 20% discount on that price. End of story.

EDIT: i reckon I'm about one post away from being threadbanned by Abasi MODERATOR...

Spot on. Consider that if his name had been something relatively common like Josh Smith, he didn't have that big, infectious smile and personality, and we didn't have people with personal connections to him posting on this board then he most likely would have largely gone unnoticed on this board and in the media. All those things I listed have nothing to do with his ability to play football and everything to do with people on here becoming attached to the kid before he ever pulled on brown and gold.

And like you say, sometimes an academy player is going to be a more attractive proposition at a certain pick than they are to the club they just so happen to be in the academy of. We saw the exact same thing with us bidding for Walker from GWS.

But I do partially disagree about Essendon having to have rated him as the best available player at their pick. I don't believe that would necessarily have to be true. At that point of the draft they could have rated some other non-academy players as being better (probably not by too much though) but knowing that if they had to wait until their next pick (pick 60) to make their bid on Moz then the corresponding amount of points Hawthorn would have had to match would be far lower (372 vs 117, or pick 43 vs pick 62) and that we'd be much more willing to match.

They might have come to the conclusion that if Hawthorn rated Moz around as much as they did then their only real chance of getting him would come with the early bid. But of course they'd have to be comfortable that he was worth passing up on those other players they might consider better in other positions, or at least willing to accept the risk that those other players may not last until their next pick at 60. And if Noah Gown was one of those players then their risk entirely paid off.

It's effectively what we did to get both Buddy and Roughy in the 2004 draft. We supposedly rated Buddy as the better player, but knew Richmond were definitely going to take Rough with their second pick and liable to pass on Buddy due to perceived professionalism/behaviour issues. So we went ahead and took Roughy first at pick 2, and hoped Buddy would still be available at pick 5, which of course he was. Had we taken Buddy at pick 2 we'd likely have ended up with Richard Tambling at pick 5! A calculated risk that paid off very well!

Premium Gold

Dodoro's over the top celebration should have alerted blind Freddy there was more to it than simply drafting Mozzie. He was shoving it up the Hawthorn recruiters an opinion which was expressed to me by a recruiting manager and football manager from two AFL clubs. I'm not obsessed so I'll pass on the need to get in the last word if it's not "End of story."

Marcus Toussant looked like a very good prospect when he trained with us. He has clean hands and at 198 cms was good below his knees. Tom Graham opted not to nominate for the 2018 draft hoping to establish himself for a FS selection in 2019. Todd Garner is an exciting prospect.

Super Moderator

Dodoro's over the top celebration should have alerted blind Freddy there was more to it than simply drafting Mozzie. He was shoving it up the Hawthorn recruiters an opinion which was expressed to me by a recruiting manager and football manager from two AFL clubs. I'm not obsessed so I'll pass on the need to get in the last word if it's not "End of story."

Marcus Toussant looked like a very good prospect when he trained with us. He has clean hands and at 198 cms was good below his knees. Tom Graham opted not to nominate for the 2018 draft hoping to establish himself for a FS selection in 2019. Todd Garner is an exciting prospect.

Premium Platinum

I know this is not the appropriate Thread, but there is some very quiet confidence about Finn MacGiness, son of Scott. Eligible this year. In my view he will be a bolter based on what I saw of him two years ago, but we have been quite heavily involved with his development.

Club Legend

I know this is not the appropriate Thread, but there is some very quiet confidence about Finn MacGiness, son of Scott. Eligible this year. In my view he will be a bolter based on what I saw of him two years ago, but we have been quite heavily involved with his development.